NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Christa Pike, who regained consciousness almost six days after that of Tennessee failed attempt to execute itis aware of what happened and “angry and confused,” one of her lawyers said Wednesday.
Pike, 50, survived despite reception two fatal doses of pentobarbital on September 30. She was sentenced to death for the 1995 beating and stabbing of classmate Colleen Slemmer.
“She is very aware of what they did to her to a certain extent,” attorney Randy Spivey said after a Nashville court hearing in which a judge asked the state to preserve evidence of the attempted execution.
“By Monday night, we had the understanding that Christa was brain dead and that life support would be taken off the next day,” Spivey said. “But on Tuesday, much to everyone’s surprise…Christa woke up and started talking.”
Spivey, who was not with Pike when she woke up, said she was told her first words were, “Where am I?” and “Who are you?”
The Death Penalty Information Center says Pike is the only person to survive after being given lethal injection drugs during an execution.
Her lawyers said she still can’t move her arms or swallow, her prognosis remains uncertain and she has a long road to recovery. Her arms were burned and blistered during the attempted execution and she is handcuffed to the hospital bed, they said.
The failed execution renewed scrutiny of how States exercise the death penaltyin particular the use of lethal injection. Texas was scheduled to execute Wednesday the first execution in the United States since Tennessee attempted to put Pike to death.
Christa Pike’s lawyers want evidence preserved
At Wednesday’s hearing, Pike’s lawyers asked the court to order Tennessee Department of Correction to back up the evidence in the case and provide more information about what went wrong. A judge asked the state to preserve “everything that was in the room itself.”
AP AUDIO: Christa Pike is awake and speaking ‘limitedly’ after attempted execution in Tennessee, lawyer says
AP correspondent Julie Walker reports that a Texas lawyer is seeking to block his execution, citing the failed execution of Christa Pike.
“Part of the problem we face is that until yesterday our client was unconscious, unable to communicate with her attorney, unable to communicate with medical providers and without her consent,” Luke Ihnen, a federal public defender, told the court.
Pike’s lawyers wanted a court order requiring the prison system to preserve information related to the attempted execution, including drug lot numbers, needles, execution logs and other information.
Chancery Judge Ashea Myles said her order to preserve the evidence would be sweeping, saying the state should preserve recordings, testimony, emails as well as drugs, syringes, IVs and other medical items.
The Tennessee attorney general’s office said a court order was not necessary. John W. Ayers, assistant attorney general, said evidence from the death chamber had already been collected and recorded.
Republican Gov. Bill Lee ordered a review, calling what happened “deeply disturbing.” Lee postponed the only other execution scheduled this year in the state.
The State the prison chief resigned following the execution failure.
Christa Pike’s recovery remains uncertain
Medicine and lethal injection experts have focused on the possibility that a problem with the IV line caused the drug to build up in his tissues rather than enter his bloodstream. Pike’s lawyers wrote in their court filing that “apparently, at no time did any member of the execution team realize that the intravenous lines were not properly placed or that the veins had burst.”
The attempted execution started around 7:30 p.m. on September 30, when Pike had the opportunity to make a final statement. About five minutes later, Pike looked up and said his arm hurt. At one point, she appeared to lose consciousness, but could be heard breathing until media were escorted from the witness room at 8:53 p.m. An ambulance arrived at the prison at 9:14 p.m. to take Pike to the hospital.
Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology and surgery in Atlanta and consulting as an expert to Pike’s legal team, said it could be weeks or months before anyone knows exactly what his recovery might look like and whether his competency could be restored so the state can try to execute him again.
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Associated Press writers Ed White in Detroit and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
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